This is a simple box with butt joints but the story is the wood. It’s a leftover from a clock I made many years ago. The wood is crosscut Douglas Fir that is very red. The only difficulty in making this piece was the brittleness of the very dry wood. I donated it to a K of C fund raiser.

I finished yet another whellbarrow and was picking up scraps/cutoffs when I noticed 6 similar shapes. Being frugal I kept them. The result is above. Not rocket science but a good gift. Bye the way the yellow book on the left is WOODWORKING FOR DUMMIES, my favorite. Sorry about some of the pictures.

I’ve made a couple of these before. One was donated to a fund raiser and another went to a friend that wanted one. I decided that we deserved to have one of our own! We’re going to use this as a barbecue server for condiments etc.)

This time I bought a better grade of pine and it went together very nicely. Saved a lot of milling too! The finish is Puritan Pine by Min-Wax mixed 5-1 with Thompson’s Water Seal.

The wheels come from Bye-Gone Workshop. They advertise in some of the wood magazines. They make good products and are very reliable.

Our Knights of Columbus chapter is having a fundraising for the Butte Fire victims. I made this large (5’ 6”) wheelbarrow for them. It’s an outdoor piece so I stained it with a mix of cherry and Thompsons Waterseal. The steel wheel is from Bye Gone Workshop. Good product.

I was asked to make a small donations box for St. Joachim’s migrant ministry.

It’s made from scraps of pine with a top of “butcher block” pine lam from a sheet used on counter tops like you can get from HD. The handle, hasp and brass hinges are also from the HD hardware dept.

The joinery is nothing fancy, just butt joints held with Tite Bond glue and pin nails (got to use my new Hitachi). The slot was cut on my router table. The stain is Min Wax Puritan with satin Varathane on top.

I had made a bridge for my wife Betty to ride her horse across. It may sound silly but some horses get spooked walking on real wooden bridges and that can be quite exciting. Her horse Mac takes it all in stride and likes walking across it. The top is red wood and the red planks are treated 2×6’s. The whole structure is build on two wooden pallets to get it off of the ground some. Thanks for looking. ;0)

I donated the last one to our church’s fund raiser. It did pretty well in the silent auction getting $160. I’m making another to use as an example of the wheelbarrow types I mentioned before. I sometimes get people asking for one after such events.

This is an easy fun project that’s popular in silent auctions for fund raisers. They kit/wheel hardware is available in magazines and on line. I used scrap wood and a 1:5 mic of Minwax cherry and Thompson ’s water seal for the finish. They recommend ebony but it seems too dark to me. We like it so much, I made one for us too. It’s the 5 th picture in the rock garden.

This was an anniversary present for our 28th which was April 4, 2015. I started it about 6 weeks ago after lung surgery. The only request was to have a drawer to store all the excess remotes and stuff if you know what I mean… It is also great storage for CDs etc.

It’s made of Red Oak and assembled with pocket screws as well as Tite-Bond glue. The overall dimensions are 24” x 18” and 20” high. The drawer is 15” x 16” x 4 1/2” deep. The top and shelf are two edge glued 3/4’ x 10” red oak boards. The legs are made up of two 1”x1 3/4” red oak boards glued together

I used Min-Wax Natural stain and Satin Varithane for the final finish coat that I hand buffed with Johnson’s floor wax.

We got back from camping at Bodega Bay Dunes and I was not happy with the paper towel holder. I’d threatened to replace it before but finally followed through this time. Just used the existing plastic marvel to get general dimensions and modified the holder accordingly. Took part of an afternoon from start to finish. Red oak blends in well with what was there to begin with too.

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Sat, 11 Oct 2014 02:29:46 GMThttp://lumberjocks.com/projects/106744jack1jack1Another idea to use left over bits...http://lumberjocks.com/projects/106742

I finished this tray about two weeks ago. Like the one before this, it’s all from scraps and cut offs. I did bury the screws this time to ease some discomfort felt by a few… :0) Just kidding.

As many of us do, I save my cut offs for… ;0). I have lots and if it’s red oak at $9/linear foot… Anyways, lots of great gifts. The tray measures 9”x19”.I did buy a couple of red oak draw pulls and used min wax natural stain and satin finish.

I’ve been eyeballing this project for more than a couple of years and finally decided to build it.It’s a plan from Klockit and the hardware also comes from them. I got my red oak from my usual source (HD) with the exception of the feet and upper spring holder. That was 16/8ths leftover from a rocking chair project (gotta love the cut-offs).

I have to admit that I don’t like “trace to cut plans” and try to avoid them as much as possible. This one wasn’t too bad and basically gives the line to bandsaw the upper and lower back pieces as well as the profile for the feet. The rest was pretty familiar stuff.

I used a Behr’s “Natural Deck” preservative to protect it from the elements. Slight change in color but not bad. Water base was a plus for cleanup…

We live out in the country and, this is a nice usable piece for our front entry. That way guests with muddy boots can shuck em outside. ;0)

We finally got around to replacing a 12 year old TV with a flat screen and, decided the old bookcase that was holding it needed to go. It was here when we moved in and it’s the length of a Buick. We gave them both to a charity auction.

I really like red oak and have done a lot of projects with it over the years. It’s nice to work and has just enough bend to overcome slight flaws. It’s also readily available in various widths at the local Home Depots.

I use Min-Wax’s natural stain and their paste wax for final finishing done by hand. That’s where the color really comes out. It’s not only an easy finish to apply, but it has a fairly low odor and is easy to repair in the future.

The construction pieces were edge glued 1×12’s, 1×10’s or 1×8’s for top, bottom, back vertical dividers and shelves. I assembled the case with the Kreg Pocket Screw system which is hard to beat for a strong assembly. I used no glue in the joints held by the pocket screws as they are sturdy enough to hold everything together.

It’s a design my wife Betty and I came up with. I did the original drawings which had sides, and when she looked at it she said I should leave off the sides to open it up to the room. Seems to do the trick.

The unit is just 47” long by 31” tall and 15 1/2” wide. The center shelves are just under 22”wide and the side shelves are 10 1/2” wide.

Betty insisted on the pedestal which is 2” high. This was a great idea because it keeps the bottom off the carpet for vacuuming and keeps the unit firmly in place.

We have a large population of gophers and I was starting to have flashbacks of Caddy Shack and Chevy Chase…Yeah, even did the propane thing. Nice explosions but that’s it. ;0) Time for plan E since ABC and D didn’t work.

I got on line and happened on the University of California Davis’ site. They had a plan and dimensions and cut list. (You can always tell when a non-woodworker measures an existing piece and makes a set of plans…). Anyways, the design looked good and needed only a little tweaking to work. Now it’s time to get it into a tree after a coat of paint.

I used a 4’x8’ sheet of exterior siding, some cleats, screws and Tite-Bond III. I used a jig saw to cut the opening as well as the clean-out access/door. There is a partition separating the entrance from the nesting area to keep the eggs/owlets safe. There are a couple of 1/2” holes in the back corners for drainage. The back eave has a 1/2” space across the back for ventilation. That’s a piece of red wood at the opening for a landing/perch for the owls.

A client needed a 2’x1’ sign for an up-coming conference in a 10 days. We agreed on a price and I got started.I had a couple of pieces of poplar that I laminated to the desired dimensions. I then used a straight bit to rout out the letters freehand. I sprayed the letters with a white Krylon let dry, sprayed again two more times.I then sanded the excess paint off (this took forever since the poplar is pretty porous) and then used Min Wax natural stain. The next day I sprayed with Min-Wax Satin and recoated it a few times.Finished with 5 days to spare!